X15-36LP Quieter than Atlas 10K III

[Clocker]

Hi,

I was saying this before (based on my experience) but nobody believed me. The X15-36LP IS quieter than the Atlas 10K III. SR's measurements confirm it. THe Atlas 10K III weighs in at 50.1 dB and the X15-36LP weighs in at 48.1 dB.

Incidentally, I found this while browsing the noise measurements for the 80GB Baracuda ATA IV I just bought from Dell Home for $108 (including shipping).

C

[Tannin]

2dB is below the theoretical threshold of human detection. But I don't doubt you Clocker. The difficulty of useful, objective noise measurement is a subject I have waxed long and eloquent on before. Well, long, at any rate. I'm tempted to buy your Atlas just so that I have something to compare my X15s with.

[Clocker]

You can always hear the difference when you know it is there :-)

J/K
but that is somewhat true...
C

[Handruin]

2dB is below the theoretical threshold of human detection. But I don't doubt you Clocker. The difficulty of useful, objective noise measurement is a subject I have waxed long and eloquent on before. Well, long, at any rate. I'm tempted to buy your Atlas just so that I have something to compare my X15s with.

I think that is misleading to say 2dB is below the theoretical threshold. 2dB in and by itself may very well be below the theoretical threshold, but a change from 48.1 dB to 50.1 dB is almost 2/3rd louder! If I remember the dB rating system, and increase of 3dB is twice as loud, making 6dB two times as loud as 3 dB.

[Handruin]

Wait, that was a bad example, no shit Doug...6 is two times three... :x

A better example is that 9dB is 2 times as loud as 6dB.

I knew I'd screw it up.

[Handruin]

Here is a source:

http://www.quiet.org/faq.htm

[time]

The human ear's dynamic range is truly amazing. The difference in sound power from 20dB to 120dB is about 10 billion times, but that's compressed down to 1000 times in our perception of loudness.

2dB is about the smallest audible difference that most people can hear. Stepped volume controls on HiFi gear are sometimes calibrated to 2dB increments. Some people can't even notice that, while others closely related to bats can distinguish 0.5dB or even less.

3dB is reasonably obvious, and sounds about a third louder.

6-7dB sounds about two thirds louder.

And 10dB sounds twice as loud. Get the picture?

It takes a doubling of sound power to add 3dB, and an order of magnitude increase to add 10dB. So theoretically, 10 drives should only sound twice as loud as one.

In practise, this completely overlooks the quality and pitch of the sound. For starters, the human ear is vastly more sensitive to some frequencies than others. And some noises are just plain annoying. We tend to ignore steady 'pink' noise, but anything with ringing harmonics will drive us up the wall.

Like the damn 60GXP here that's developed bearing whine, for example. And placing two or more drives together will produce some sort of 'beat', maybe even close to one of the resonant frequencies of your case ... :errr:

[Clocker]

Bringing this thread back to life....

I broke down and bought another 36GB Atlas 10K III. It is not nearly as noisy as my old 10K III 36GB. In fact, I think it is on par with my 18GB X15-36LP (rather than louder like the original one I had).

I missed the speed of my 10K III and I'm happy to have it back! The Barracuda ATA4 was OK but now it is even better in the 'basement' system. :-) It sure is damn quiet though....it's so quiet it is really hard to believe...

C

[Clocker]

Just testing sig.

C

[flagreen]

Decible Smeshible it's the Martians that are darn near intolerable in those Cheetahs.

[flagreen]

Good God Clocker is that a Detroit Lions logo? Have you no shame? :mrgrn:

[Handruin]

Good God Clocker is that a Detroit Lions logo? Have you no shame? :mrgrn:

Is that the pitsburg penguin's mascot :?: :o

[Clocker]

Good God Clocker is that a Detroit Lions logo? Have you no shame? :mrgrn:

hEY MAN...THEY ARE TURNING IT AROUND!!

[CougTek]

Is that the pitsburg penguin's mascot :?: :o
Nope, not even close.

BRaiLleSPEAK (http://freshmeat.net/projects/brlspeak/?topic_id=887%2C45%2C864%2C257), essentially, a Linux distro with speech recognition and support for braille language. You can see their logo on Linux ISO.org (http://www.linuxiso.org/)

[Handruin]

Is that the pitsburg penguin's mascot :?: :o
Nope, not even close.

BRaiLleSPEAK (http://freshmeat.net/projects/brlspeak/?topic_id=887%2C45%2C864%2C257), essentially, a Linux distro with speech recognition and support for braille language. You can see their logo on Linux ISO.org (http://www.linuxiso.org/)

I know it wasn't their mascot, I was giving him a hard time. ;)

[flagreen]

Good God Clocker is that a Detroit Lions logo? Have you no shame? :mrgrn:

Is that the pitsburg penguin's mascot :?: :o

Nope, that's the evil Ex.

[Buck]

Since this thread was resurrected, I noted something special in the words of our dear Tannin:


2dB is below the theoretical threshold of human detection. But I don't doubt you Clocker. The difficulty of useful, objective noise measurement is a subject I have waxed long and eloquent on before. Well, long, at any rate. I'm tempted to buy your Atlas just so that I have something to compare my X15s with.

Although I will use it out of Tannin's context, the word that struck me was: waxed. Is it just me, or does anyone else see the humor in using the term wax in conjuction with a subject regarding sounds and hearing? It's probably just me. :roll:

[Bartender]

No more Bourbon for you!